Subject: YAFYI Suggestion

From: Ed Krol <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 10:41:54 -0600 (CST)

I just got an call from someone who was looking for a 'future of the
internet document that geologists could understand' and I couldn't 
point him to anything specific. I hemmed and hawed about IPv6, multicast,
internet 2 and a bunch of stuff but couldnt point to anything specific.

Then I got to thinking that uswg spends a lot of time worrying about
documenting best current practices and the IETF has a lot of overly
technical documents out there which are of use to a focused technologist,
but no one has written a 'based on the current work of IETF what will
the Internet look like in n years'.

As I see it the way you would do this document is to assume that everywhere
there is being work done something gets completed and telling what it
will mean for the user.

Example:  Standards in calendaring and scheduling applications will 
allow you to pick your favorite calendaring program and use it with
any server which your company uses.  It will also allow wider sharing
of calendaring and scheduling data to allow you to schedule meetings 
not only within your company, but with outsiders whom are in a collaborative
arrangement with your company.

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From: Michael Sondow <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 12:57:23 -0500

Some work by the uswg on preparing a document about the future of the
Internet for users, taking info from IETF, Internet 2, and also ICANN,
sounds very relevant to me. I think the timing is right for such a
study. And Mr. krol is right in seeing it as requiring an on-going,
continuously-updating format.

-- 
============================================================
Concerns about "rights" and "ownership" of domains are
inappropriate.  It is appropriate to be concerned about
"responsibilities" and "service" to the community.

                                    ----- Jon Postel, 1994.
============================================================
International Congress of Independent Internet Users (ICIIU)
       http://www.iciiu.org       [email-masked]
============================================================

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From: April Marine <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 16:10:05 -0800 (PST)

This seems like a really interesting idea!  

I get two thoughts right off. (A new record really :-)

1. I see more than one document, each focusing on a particular topic (much
like the "what up in the FOO Area of IETF?" idea mentioned before).

2. This would seem to fit well into either the traditional document
format, or the "evolving publishing" work we've been talking about.  I
will put this down, therefore, for discussion at the Wed session of USWG
(unless Ed says he can't make that one, but can make Monday).

thanks!!
April

On Wed, 2 Dec 1998, Ed Krol wrote:

> Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 10:41:54 -0600 (CST)
> From: Ed Krol <[email-masked]>
> To: [email-masked]
> Cc: [email-masked]
> Subject: YAFYI Suggestion
> 

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April Marine			1-650-604-0762  --> me
GLOBE Program			1-800-858-9947  --> GLOBE Help Desk
(Raytheon ITSS)			[email-masked]
NASA Ames Research Center, MS 204/14, Moffett Field, CA 94035-1000
(and IETF User Services Area Director http://archimedes.nasa.gov/usv/)

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From: Susan Calcari <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 10:55:05 -0600

Hi Gang,

I'm late on my comments, but since I couldn't be at the meeting I thought
I'd chime in. I think Ed's idea is a good one, and hits on something that
has been brought up in the past that I really like: explaining to the lay
person what all these "working groups" and "RFCs" mean to them. And by lay
person I mean myself in most cases, since I don't follow much outside of
USWG.

In other words, by using the future as the basis for explaining what the
current work will mean, we are also de-mystifying and translating the
current work into readable information. I never knew what the calendaring
WG was really doing until Ed explained it. So this is a great way for USWG
to contribute to the IETF's work.

Hope the discussions were positive.

Susan